Chapter 7: Windfall
Although the tournament had only been going on for an afternoon, the constant suspense of the duels made the tournament seem as if it had been occurring much longer. Suddenly, the sun had grown low on the horizon, the scattered clouds tinted pink from the angled light. The star's bottom half was obscured by the top of the open-air stadium, and this was certainly no holographic effect. After the stormy weather of the last duel, the orange and blue sky did much to set the audience and the duelists at ease.
It took twenty minutes and an angry call to Kaiba Corp's IT department for Roland to get the holographic projectors back online. Torres was already standing in the center of the arena, pacing like a caged beast.
Chazz was entirely relaxed, finding Torres to be a rather amusing sideshow at best. And yet, something about the Spanish boy's anger reminded Chazz of someone…someone he couldn't quite place. The feeling of recognition lingered in the back of his mind, even as he spoke familiarly among his fellow duelists.
Everyone with the exception of Adrian was gathered in a circle and making friendly chitchat. The Cloudian duelist stood apart noticeably, idly reading something on his phone while glancing their way every so often.
Chazz used to be merely annoyed at the sight of the maroon-haired duelist, but seeing him defeat Alexis made him feel downright vengeful. It was silly to feel this way; Alexis herself wasn't upset at the defeat. In fact, she relished the chance to re-polish her dueling skills in a risk-free environment. Chazz didn't view it that way, only seeing the girl he held affection for being defeated by the hand of a man he already disliked.
Inwardly, Chazz felt a thrill of excitement at the prospect of defeating Adrian before an admiring crowd. And of course, it did not escape Chazz that Jaden was still in the tournament as well. Although the Slifer Red had earned his respect many times over at this point, Chazz wanted to at least have one victory over him. For now though, he would stomp out the growing fire of Joshua Torres.
"OK ladies and gentlemen, the struggle is now over! Will Chazz Princeton and Joshua Torres…" Roland began to ask them both out to the arena, but saw that Torres was already out there. "Erm…will Chazz Princeton please make his way out to the ring please?"
"Go get em, tiger!" Alexis said, playfully swatting him on the arm. "Yeah, kick his ass!" Jaden cheered. Mokuba and Leon gave Chazz a polite wave. The black-haired Ojama duelist was glad to have some support in his corner. It was certainly much better than being alone all of the time.
He threw on his infamous black trenchcoat and slowly strode into the sunlit coliseum. As he passed by Adrian, their grey eyes met briefly and a clear challenge was issued.
"Ooh~, the tension is real." Ojama Yellow popped up out of nowhere and whispered in Chazz's ear. The boy nearly jumped. "What are you doing here? Can't you see I'm trying to be badass!?" He muttered. "Aw, c'mon boss, I'm your guardian spirit! I'm here to lead you into battle!" The yellow gremlin crooned.
"What was that, Princeton?" Adrian spoke up. "Nothing! Shut up!" Chazz nearly roared as he hustled out to the arena. Jaden saw the entire exchange play out, and could scarcely contain his laughter. Winged Kuriboh appeared right beside his head, the furball also giggling.
The sun set Torres' body in silhouette, the avenger's dark eyes crinkled in anticipation. His white vest and jeans rustled in the wind, and his duel disk was already activated.
"Listen man, I'll tell you one last time. I had nothing to do with your father's business or his fall from grace. I don't want bad things to happen to your family…just let go and we'll duel like men." Chazz ventured. He knew trying to reason with Torres was pointless, but for a reason unknown to him, he tried anyways. "Why do I commit to such fruitless efforts?" Chazz thought bitterly.
"No more! I'll have no more of your poisonous words. You and your damnable brothers have ruined my life with your silver tongues! The only utterance I want to hear from that mouth of yours is an admission of defeat! Now, I shall show you what it means to fight like a man!"
The game began thusly, the crowd cheering at the prospect of a god old-fashioned grudge match. Jaden and Alexis shared a glance; they detected a certain similarity between the two rivals that extended beyond their circumstances.
"I'll begin and end by setting one monster." Torres snapped, quickly playing his cards and ending his turn. It was clear in both his words and deeds that he was in no mood for any sort of frivolity.
"Hmph, that's all? After that grandiose speech, that's your move?" Chazz smirked as he drew. "First off, I'll activate the continuous spell Frontline Base! Now, in addition to my normal summon, I can summon a level 4 or lower Union monster from my hand!"
"I'll play X-Head Cannon (1800/1500)!" Onto Chazz's field, a war machine was built. With its angular blue and yellow framing and large shoulder cannon barrels, the monster was an intimidating sight. "And with my Frontline Base's effect, I can summon Y-Dragon Head (1500/1600) as well!" Joining his side was a red mecha in the shape of a dragon, its metal wings flapping with a whine.
"Ah, your friend has good taste in cards. My brother loves those XYZ monsters." Mokuba commented fondly.
"You know, I think that's where Chazz got the inspiration to use them. I remember back when we were in prep school together, he used to talk about he was going to be 'The Next Seto Kaiba'. It was kind of cute." Alexis chuckled, recalling a childhood memory.
"Aw, he sounds like he would've been an adorable kid." Mokuba winked, and Alexis felt color creeping up her neck. Unbidden, less pleasant memories began to bubble to the surface of her mind. She remembered that Chazz was always challenging other students to duels back in prep school, and he won most of them. She never acquiesced to his requests, even for one friendly game. During class, she always saw him surrounded by fellow students, but he always walked to and from school alone. During those times when he was alone, she saw nothing but emptiness in his eyes.
Alexis shuddered, trying to return to the match.
"Now, I'll blast your face-down with my X-Head Cannon!" Chazz called his attack. His machine pointed its cannons at the adversary's monster and fired, leaving trails of gunpowder and smoke in the air. Torres' monster was revealed to be Treeborn Frog (100/100), a brown toad with silly little angel wings.
"Is that the best you can do? Your defenses are absolutely pitiful! Y-Dragon Head, attack him directly!" As Chazz spoke, the red dragon charged up a beam of blue electric energy in its maw. In a moment, it fired, barraging Torres with voltic power. (Chazz 4000/Torres 2500)
Chazz cackled. "They might as well have given me a bye this round! I'll set one face-down and end my turn."
"Yeah, just keep on laughing while you can, Princeton…" Torres growled as he began his next turn. "You destroyed my Treeborn Frog last turn-"
"Ah, is that the name of the card? I'm afraid it wasn't around long enough for me to properly read it!" Chazz interrupted. "Then it's a good thing you're about to see it again! You see, when I have no face-downs, I can summon Treeborn Frog from my graveyard!" Torres smirked as his frog returned to the field.
"You may scoff, Princeton, but these cards of mine mean much to me than you realize. You see, this deck was given to me by my father, who picked up the game of duel monsters as a way of spending time with me, his only son. The deck is a little old- I no longer have the spare change to buy new cards. Still, it was enough to get past the preliminaries, and it will be enough to crush you!" Torres roared. "I sacrifice Treeborn Frog to summon Mobius the Frost Monarch (2400/1000)!"
In a pillar of frost appeared a regal warrior in blue armor and cape. It looked like a grim, realistic mirror to Elemental Hero Absolute Zero. In its hand was a lance fashioned out of ice.
Chazz frowned. He knew of the Monarchs. They were relatively inexpensive cards with a straightforward and powerful playstyle. The reason he recognized them was because they were the cards he himself gave to Sarina's Light Brigade before their attack on Domino City, an attack that would have succeeded if not for the efforts of Syrus, Tyranno, Jaden, and Aster. The memory caused his mouth to curl downwards.
"Your father sounds like a decent man, Torres, which is more than I can say for you." The venomous indictment flowed so naturally from Chazz's mouth, and his mind was good at fashioning barbarous words.
"Mobius destroys up to two spells or traps when its summoned, so say goodbye to your face-down!' Torres pressed on, ignoring Chazz's insults. "Not quite! In response to your monarch's effect, I activate my trap, Ojama Trio!" Chazz retorted.
"Ah, now Chazz's real threats are starting to appear!" Jaden said conspirationally. "What? You can't possibly be referring to the Ojamas. Those cards are absolute trash!" Leon replied incredulously. "Hey, I'm not saying you're wrong. But when Chazz plays those Ojamas, the magic happens. I'm still not sure how exactly, but he can somehow make them work." Jaden shrugged.
"When this trap is activated, three Ojama tokens (0/1000) are summoned to your side of the field in defense mode. Unfortunately for you, they can't be used for tributes, but they take up plenty of space!" Chazz smirked.
Onto Torres' field arrived the infamous trio of goblins, each of them wearing the most facetious of expressions. Cheekily, they stuck their tongues out at the disgusted Spainard. "Such disgusting creatures!" He protested. "But it hardly matters! Mobius, destroy his Y-Dragon Head now!'
The frost emperor slowed the gears and circuits of the dragon mecha, causing it to shut down from the cold. (Chazz 3100/Torres 2500) "I'll end my turn there, Princeton."
Chazz was surprised to see that his draw was one of the newest cards he had put in his deck of disparate creatures. After his time in the Society of Light, he refurbished a few cards in order to create more aggressive playstyle. "Time to show off one of my newest monsters!" "First things first, I'll use the effect of my Frontline Base to specially summon Z-Metal Tank (1500/1300) from my hand." A yellow-hued tank rolled into the field, a single mechanical eye poking between its two laser cannons.
"Is he planning to fuse them?" Alexis asked. "I doubt it. XZ-Tank Cannon wouldn't be powerful enough to defeat a monarch. Unless he has some way of reviving Y-Dragon Head…" Mokuba hypothesized, trying to understand Chazz's strategy.
"Now, I'll sacrifice my two machines to bring forth Light and Darkness Dragon (2800/2300)!" An explosion of equal parts shadow and light rocked the arena, its dichotomy intriguing the watchers. Emerging from a sphere of energy was the dragon. One half of its hide was shiny, pure white, and the other was pitch black.
"Now you see the difference between us! The gap that cannot be breached! Attack, my dragon!" Chazz's glorious, yet sinister monster complied, releasing a uniquely gray blast of energy at Torres' monarch. The emperor was obliterated by the bright darkness. (Chazz 3100/Torres 2100)
"What a monster! I had no idea Chazz had that thing in his deck!" Jaden grinned, impressed at the dragon's striking appearance. "And that's not all- that dragon has some special effects of its own!" Alexis reminded him. Adrian frowned. "I thought Chazz Princeton played Ojamas- not something of this magnitude!"
Torres did not seem too worried, despite the fact that he had only had Ojama tokens to defend himself with. "It's a strong card…but I know how to defeat it! Now that's it my turn and I have no face-downs, my Treeborn Frog is resurrected!" The angelic amphibian returned and was immediately heckled by the Ojama tokens.
"I see…he can keep on sacrificing that damn frog if he chooses to. And since I summoned those Ojamas to his field, the path to his life points is delayed! I hope I'm not digging my own grave here…" Chazz ruminated.
"Now, I tribute my Frog to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch (2400/1000)!" Torres brought forth the next in his line of kings. This monarch wore armor of a dark purple shade, and black hellfire burned on its palms. "When this card is summoned, I can destroy one of your monsters, and if it's a dark-attribute one, you take 1000 points of damage!"
"Not quite! I'll use the effect of my Light and Darkness Dragon! Whenever an effect activates, I can negate it and destroy the card at the cost of my dragon losing 500 attack points." Chazz declared, and with a meteoric burst of gleaming power, Caius the Shadow Monarch was atomized by Chazz's dragon.
"Haha! Now do you see!? You cannot defeat me!" Chazz roared. "I set one face-down and end my turn. Now, go on and sow the seeds to your own downfall!" Torres spat.
"I think not!" Chazz declared confidently. "Shoot, no monsters…It looks like my dragon's going to be putting a lot more legwork than I thought…" "Now, I'll attack one of the Ojama tokens with my dragon!" The fallen prince roared.
"I activate Mirror Force, destroying all of your attacking monsters!" Torres shouted, playing the common trap. "I'll negate it with Light and Darkness Dragon!" Chazz ticked in annoyance as his dragon's power dropped to 1800. Another explosive wave of light burst forth from the mighty dragon as its assault continued, destroying one of the Ojama tokens.
Torres grunted. "This is getting serious…but I won't back down, Princeton!" (Chazz 3100/Torres 1800) "I draw!" The first of the evening stars had begun to blink into existence, and the intensity of the duel was beginning to spike.
However, Chazz's bellicose nature from earlier in the match was beginning to cool down. Unlike Jaden and Alexis, his excitement did not mount as the duel continued. Rather, it cooled like hot steel fresh from the ore into a steely and keen edge. While he was confident that he could defeat Torres before, now was he absolutely certain.
"Treeborn Frog comes back!" Torres' recurring pest popped onto the field once more. "Now, I'll summon Alien Shocktrooper (1900/800) in attack mode!" A demonic footsoldier with rough green skin and powerful hind legs knelt onto the battlefield. In its hand was a chipped blade. "Now, I'll take down that pesky dragon of yours! Shocktrooper, attack!"
In a skyward slash, the Light and Darkness Dragon was sliced apart by the space-born soldier. "My move is over. I hope you have something up your sleeve, because there's no way you will ever breach my defenses!" Torres said cockily. (Chazz 3000/Torres 1800)
"Chazz is in a bind…I didn't realize how much he was relying on that dragon!" Leon worried. "Oh, he'll be fine…Chazz hasn't even gotten started." Jaden said, ever relaxed. "You got that right." Alexis agreed.
"Hey, boss, is it time? Can we come out?" Ojama Yellow pestered. "Nearly…I just need to get my strategy going, you little twerp!" Chazz shot back. "Did you just call me a little twerp!?" Torres roared, his anger peaking. "No, not you! I was talking to the voice in my head!" Chazz shouted, not even realizing how foolish he sounded. Jaden laughed yet again.
"Now, I'm going to show you what true power really is, fool! Behold! I play Monster Reincarnation! Now, by sending a card from my hand to the grave, I can add a monster back to my hand! I'll bring back my X-Head Cannon." Chazz explained.
"So what? That thing's useless now that your other two mechs are gone!" Torres protested. "I know that! The real purpose was to send my Ojamagic spell card to the graveyard. Now, I can add the three Ojama brothers from my deck to my hand!" Chazz responded.
As he spoke, he drew the three Ojama cards from his deck. "I see the way they all laugh, the way you laugh, Torres. Even when you are at your lowest low, you continue to mock me. I admit, we are similar…alike in ways that disgust me. However, there is a distinction between us beyond mere cards. When life knocked me down in the dirt, I made the choice to stand up! No one else offered me a helping hand, and I would've swat away anyone who did! Sometimes, terrible things happen for seemingly no reason, and your weaknesses are struck at over and over." Chazz delivered the speech with the bombast of Julius Caesar himself.
"I already told you that I was tired of you talking! Make your move!" Torres nearly screamed.
"And so the only solution is turn one's weaknesses into strength! I activate Polymerization! Now, my three strongest monsters will fuse together! Go, Ojamas!" Chazz raised the fusion card high into the air with pride. Onto the field, the three gremlins appeared. Black, Green, and Yellow struck silly poses before leaping into the air, a gross parody of a superheroic comeback.
"This is the bolt of lightning that will strike you down! I summon Ojama King (0/3000)!" From the orange heavens descended a creature both undeniably grotesque and strangely angelic. It was an egg-shaped humanoid creature roughly as tall as a two-story house and twice as wide. Its white skin and large mouth was off-putting, while its shower curtain cape and red speedo were somewhat humorous. All in all, it was a completely and utterly odd monster.
"When this monster is summoned, I can select up to three of your monster zones and render them unusable. However, since you only have one empty zone, that's all my monster can affect." Chazz ran through the explanation like a professional.
"You call this a monster! That thing is disgusting! You actually believe that you can defeat me with something like this!?" Torres, in a panic, sneered. "Yes, I do. You see, I'm not quite finished yet. I activate the field spell Ojama Country. Now, whenever an Ojama monster is on the field, all attack and defense points are switched!"
"No! I can't lose to such a cheap trick!" Torres protested. "A cheap trick? As I recall, you're the one who spent this entire duel trashing my cards, calling them worthless. Well, guess what? This worthless 3000 attack point beater is about to show you otherwise! Ojama King, destroy his alien!"
The King reared its fist back, and its muscles comically expanded before striking Torres' shocktrooper. With its stats switched, the shocktrooper only had 800 attack points, and thus Torres took 2200 points of damage. (Chazz 3000/Torres 0)
Torres dropped to his knees, his eyes widened in shock. "No…I really needed this…I needed that prize money to help my dad!" His eyes, normally filled with rage, now sparkled with tears of sadness and pain.
Chazz winced. He knew that he would be dashing Torres' dreams by winning the duel, but he didn't expect that he would feel so bad about it. "He would've lost against Adrian anyways…" was what he kept repeating to himself inside his mind. He couldn't bear to look at the man he defeated. As he turned around, the sound of Roland announcing his victory rang in his ears.
Cringing, he decided to look back, only to find Torres walking out of the arena with his middle fingers raised proudly. "I'm gonna get my money back…and I'm gonna do it my way!" The tan-skinned neophyte announced with a snarl, foisting his teenage angst upon the uncomfortable crowd.
Chazz's guilt disappeared. With a chuckle, he turned back to his friends, who heartily congratulated him. Chazz accepted their cheers with uncharacteristic grace, staying mostly silent as Jaden and Alexis praised his choice of strategy.
He glanced over at Adrian, who was unusually pensive. Tomorrow, he would facing the Cloudian duelist in order to avenge her. Well, he wouldn't really be avenging her, per se, since she didn't really take the loss personally. Still, he entertained the fantasy regardless.
After a few more minutes of conversation, the Duel Academy trio bid Mokuba and Leon goodbye, with Jaden and Mokuba exchanging challenging looks as they passed by. The young students were glad to be out of the arena for the day; it had been seven hours since they first entered. "Well, let's all relax at the hotel for a bit. We can order some food up to our rooms. I can pay for it." Alexis offered graciously.
"Sweet! Just make sure you get an order of sushi on that!" Jaden chirped. "Thank you, Alexis." Chazz said, making eye contact with her. After a moment, she said, "No problem." From there, they hustled through the busy streets back to the Imperial Hotel.
Twenty minutes later, they all had changed into the clothes they would be going to the amusement park in later. Jaden wore a black floral print shirt with khaki shorts, while Chazz donned a white long sleeve with an artistic design running down the arm with jeans. Alexis chose a light blue tank top with white shorts. She enjoyed the reaction her clothing procured from Chazz. The boy's normally pale face was stained with color upon seeing her.
Alexis decided to order breakfast foods for them, despite the fact that it was five in the evening. Jaden didn't complain; he was down for waffles and sushi any time of the day. Chazz smirked at the meal, but ate his eggs without complaint. Alexis even gave him a slice of pineapple, which surely wasn't cheap. He couldn't believe that she was going out of her way to spoil him like this, but this was a damn sight better than eating cheap bodega food again.
Two hours later, they got a map from the hotel lobby and began making their way towards Kaiba Land. The amusement park was a brisk 20-minute walk (or in Jaden's case, a 15-minute run) from their lodgings, and it was downhill from them. When the young duelists caught sight of the park, their breaths were taken away.
The park was awash with multicolored fluorescent lights and people. A ferris wheel slowly spun next to Blue-Eyes White Dragon themed rollercoasters and carousels. In another lot were booths of carnival games and snack stands, with a wooden boardwalk leading down to the beach, where many couples watched the crashing waves.
"Man, that Kaiba really didn't spare any expense, did he?" Chazz smiled. "No, he didn't!" Alexis replied, taking in the colors with wonder. "Woo!" Jaden, forgoing any restraint, ran off to go ride some rollercoasters.
Part of Chazz was glad that Jaden left, because now he was able to spend some quality time with Alexis, who was looking at him expectantly. However, he also had only fleeting ideas on how to "hang out with a girl", as the kids say.
"So…um…how about that local sports team?" Chazz ventured. Alexis laughed. "Let's go ride the teacups, you idiot." She dragged him by the arm to the Kuriboh-themed teacup ride, which was mostly populated by couples and children.
Chazz grumbled, but did not complain as he sat in the contraption with her. After fastening their slightly-too-small seatbelts, the ride began, spinning them round and round.
They both laughed, a fact that surprised Chazz immensely. It seemed that just being around Alexis made him happier.
Meanwhile, Jaden found himself excelling at the various carnival games on the boardwalk. Although he heard from various disgruntled children that the games were rigged, Jaden himself was doing fairly well at them. He already won a Winged Kuriboh plushie from the milk bottles and was now playing horseshoes.
"Aw yeah! I win again!" He whooped as he landed yet another perfectly thrown horseshoe. "Now what do I win?" He excitedly asked the strung-out booth manager.
Massaging his tired eyes, the carnie answered, "Well, since you already won the DVD player and the laptop computer, I guess you can take this Kuriboh hat." For the first time since Kaiba Land's inception, the carnival managers had to order more of the top prizes. Usually, no one ever managed to do as well as Jaden.
"Alright!" Jaden put on the Kuriboh hat, causing no observable change in his hairstyle. "I wonder what other cool rides there are…"
As he pondered this, a gravelly voice sounded behind him. "That was an impressive performance today, Jaden Yuki."
Recognizing who it was, Jaden swiveled around immediately. He saw a man with cobalt hair and steely blue eyes. His tall frame wore a sleek black leather jacket, dark pants, and steel-toed boots. This dark and intimidating figure was completed by the stony frown he wore.
This was Zane Truesdale, formerly considered the King of Obelisk Blue during his tenure at Duel Academy, as well as one of the finest duelists of his generations. He is one of the few who had never lost to Jaden, despite the Slifer's greatest efforts. Jaden used to look at Zane as a goal to surpass, almost a role model in some respects.
That all changed once Zane graduated.
Fresh out of high school, Zane immediately got many lucrative offers from the pro dueling circuit. For the first few months, he did well as a prizefighter. However, after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Aster Phoenix, who wasn't even using his real deck at the time, Zane fell into a downward spiral.
After losing a series of matches, Zane was fired by his agent and forced to find work in the shady underground dueling rings. He dueled in cold metal cages to the pleasure of a darkened criminal audience. Before every duel, he and his opponent were forced to wear bio-electric collars that shocked them every time they took damage, adding a perverse element of sadomasochism to an otherwise benign card game.
It was enough to drive any man mad.
Zane returned to Duel Academy for the Genex Tournament a changed person, and not for the better. His eyes were now perpetually underined with dark circles, and there were rumors that he didn't sleep at all now, although this couldn't possibly be true. He spent the tournament humiliating school students and winning medals before leaving out of boredom.
Before he did so, he dueled and defeated his younger brother Syrus in a painful and degrading duel that hospitalized the younger Truesdale for a few days afterwards. Needless to say, Jaden was hardly pleased to see Zane again.
"Zane! What are you doing here?" Without thinking about it, Jaden's posture grew defensive, and he was ready to run at any moment.
"I merely wished to congratulate you, that's all. Defeating the Wicked Gods is no small feat. Of course, I suspect you'll find tomorrow's matches more challenging, though…" Zane's tone was deceptively casual. "I'm in town for an underground duel, and I had the afternoon off, so I thought I'd see how my little friends from school are doing."
"Don't talk to me like that! I don't want anything to do with you! Just leave me and my friends alone!" Jaden shot back, drawing attention from a few passerby. "So tense! What happened to the carefree Slifer who nearly beat me before?" Zane cackled.
"I should be asking you about changes, Zane. You've changed…a lot." Jaden wondered what happened that caused such a dramatic transformation to his old rival.
"I suppose I have changed a bit…the idea of you nearly beating me as I am now is laughable. You should realize that change is an inevitable part of life. Even you will someday morph into something unrecognizable from your current self, only to look back and wonder what happened." He smirked. Jaden, for his part, shrugged it off. "We can throw down right here if you really want to test that theory." The Slifer replied coolly.
Zane's mocking gaze hardened for a moment, as if he was seriously considering Jaden as a threat. The moment passed, and his eyes were sadistically playful once more. "I think not. I wouldn't want to tire you out before your duel against Mokuba Kaiba tomorrow. Besides, I'll need to leave soon to get to my underground match."
"Excuses, excuses…" Jaden muttered under his breath. Zane laughed. "You have spunk, Jaden. I wonder if you will always be so cheerful…" Like a bat, Zane seemingly melted into the night, and Jaden quickly lost sight of him in the throngs of people. Their interaction as so brief and strange as to be dreamlike- Jaden still wasn't entirely sure what Zane wanted to tell him.
"Maybe I ate a bad hot dog or something…" The boy laughed it off before going on to win another round of carnival games.
Meanwhile, Chazz and Alexis decided to walk down by the beach. After going on one of the Blue-Eyes rollercoasters, their hair was messed about, and their cheeks were red with exhilaration. Chazz's normally styled black hair now had a scruffy, windswept look about it. Part of Alexis' hair was draped over her shoulder, and Chazz moved it out of the way as they walked.
They were both laughing. "You know, for such a normally tough guy, you sure screamed a lot on that rollercoaster!" She teased him playfully with a bump on the shoulder.
His guard down, Chazz laughed openly. "Now as much you, judging by how you were holding onto my arm the entire time…" He teased back, finally gaining a sense of humor in the nighttime. "Oh, please…" She trailed off, looking out at the sea. It was a clear night, and the beach was far enough from the park that many stars could be clearly seen. The moonlight cast a pale glow on both of them, and Chazz knew in some part of his mind that this was his moment.
Caring nothing for the consequences, he leaned in for a kiss. Her hazel eyes widened in surprise, but she gladly reciprocated his affections, kissing him back. Their eyes closed, each of them finding pure bliss in the moment. After nearly fifteen seconds, they broke off, their breathing heavy.
Saying nothing, they walked back to the park. They did not hold hands, and were generally unsure of where they stood now. Still, Chazz knew now that his feelings were at least partially returned by the girl he loved.
The sublime feeling this realization brought him would buoy him for the rest of the summer.
A/N
Greetings lovely readers, and thanks for your continued interest in the story!
We finally get to see Chazz in action here, and I had great fun writing this duel. I hope you guys found Torres to be a suitable OC; I thought he would make a good foil for Chazz, kind of like a version of him that won the School Duel and defeated Jaden. I also included a few of Chazz's cards from his manga incarnation, such as the famous Light and Darkness Dragon!
Anyways, it seems that Chazz and Alexis are finally a couple! I always liked them as an item, just because their personalities seemingly both complemented and contrasted each other. If I could change one thing about GX, the first thing I would alter would be changing Chazz from a whimpering beta male in regards to Alexis into a seriously possible romantic partner. The idea of a love triangle between Jaden, Alexis and Chazz would have been a good way to flesh out the characters in my opinion. Jaden ended up in a love triangle, but Chazz and Alexis seemed to have no part of it in the third and fourth seasons.
Next Chapter will feature the showdown between the heir to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Mokuba, versus Jaden, the Hero duelist! I'm pretty pumped about this duel and I hope you are too! I may be a bit late on the update because of increased responsibilities irl, but we'll make it work. Thanks, and have a blessed day.